Novel structure and abnormal electronic properties of ultra-thin BC2N nanotubes from first-principles investigation

- A novel, screwy, helicoidal and cyclical (like the structure of DNA molecule) structure was first found for BC2N nanotubes.
- The stability of BC2N nanotubes are sensitive to the number of BN bonds and the arrange modes of BNNT and CNT segments.
- All (2,2) BC2N nanotubes were found to be semiconductor with tunable energy gap, whereas (4,0) BC2N nanotubes can be conductor or semiconductor depending on different configurations.
- The electronic properties of ultra-thin BC2N nanotubes are abnormal when compared to the relative big ones.